Does Your Dog Truly Love You? Science Has the Answer Newsweek
Cops: Woman Defecated On Church Altar Smoking Gun (resilc)
Americans’ Views of Childhood Vaccines Remain Largely Positive Pew Research Center. This is not consistent with what IM Doc is being told by his patients, who disproportionately include top PMC and billionaire Dem patients. Two of many examples. Keep in mind is county is in the top ten in Covid vaccination rates in the US:
As an aside, I have now had 3 different parents in the office this week – 2 dads and one mom. They are suspending ALL vaccines from their kids. Measles, polio, whatever. One summed it up best for the group – “That lying prick Fauci – is no better than Monsanto” – I am not trusting my kids’ lives with these assholes no matter what.” I quickly learned there will be no amount of talking or cajoling I will be able to do to change minds.
Consequences. Get ready for more epidemics. They are sure to follow.
FYI – none of the three are MAGA – all “My body is perfection” Bernie Bros – man-bun wearing – avocado toast eating liberals. The media really has this all wrong.
And..
I have been informed today by 2 different patients that their grandkids will no longer have any vaccines. Here in blue America. I was in this Zoom meeting today where this issue was discussed at length. I am certainly not alone. Multiple people from all over the country are speaking up now about the incipient movement to stop vaccinating themselves and their kids. This knows no political borders – it involves every creed, race and group. In short – as I have been saying all along – the entire medical profession has shot its wad. Decades and generations of credibility tossed out the window.
After decades of neglecting women athletes, sport and exercise medicine is finally catching up STAT (Paul R)
Mosquitoes are most attracted to a chemical compound present in butter, cheeses and yogurts. Their deterrents can be a chemical found in plants, including cannabis. Business Insider. Easier to get a bug zapper.
We’re All Bored of Culture Tablet (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
“Effectiveness was not demonstrated when the XBB lineages were dominant.”@WHO now recommends that updated vaccines only target XBB.
This *should* qualify XBB* as a new VOC under their own stated criteria, and thus it should be named “Pi”.
https://t.co/CCOjAsVSuB— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) May 19, 2023
Masks and portable air cleaners reduced the spread of COVID-19 in schools, study shows
Full report Published in journal PLOS Medicine: https://t.co/mqOpwmjV4V#COVID19 #Masks #CleanAir #PandemicIsNotOver
Source: https://t.co/7AaNp4Tybw pic.twitter.com/zHnX3gx0d9
— Denis – The COVID info guy – (@BigBadDenis) May 20, 2023
FDA Says Telling People Not to Take Ivermectin for COVID-19 Was Just a Recommendation NTD
Climate/Environment
Birds Are Shrinking as the Climate Warms — and Small Birds Are Shrinking Faster Yale E360 (resilc) 🙁
Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage Science (Paul R)
The Noah’s Ark for plants beneath the English countryside Agence France-Presse (furzy)
Who Said Recycling Was Green? It Makes Microplastics By the Ton Inside Climate News (resilc)
Crowd-Funded Startup Is Making a Coffee Cup That Can Be Eaten Bloomberg
Vast majority of global methane emissions go unregulated, says new study New Lede
Here’s Why Toyota Isn’t Rushing to Sell You an Electric Vehicle Jalopnik
A Chicken and Egg Problem: How Germany’s Hydrogen Boom Stalled Der Spiegel (resilc)
Heat insurance offers climate change lifeline to poor workers Reuters. Resilc: “Also needed for all the electrionixxx in your new carzzzz. Glued together connectorzzz melt and fail too.”
China?
< a target=”_blank”> Financial Times The US Is Receptive To Kissinger’s Suggestion To Revive Talks With China On A New Détente Andrew Korybko
Austerity & a New Cold War With China Consortium News. Versus following story…
China’s loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of collapse Associated Press. Kevin W: “Thank god we have the IMF as an alternative!”
“I have no idea, not a clue in my mind, what China would do with information gathered from people who live in Montana.” https://t.co/GpuGWqo420
— Slate (@Slate) May 20, 2023
Myanmar PDFs getting the guns to turn the war Asia Times (Kevin W)
Old Blighty
Brexit blame game erupts again: how leaving EU came back to bite Tories Guardian
Rishi Sunak: Britain has moved on from judging people for being rich Guardian (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
National security experts: War in Ukraine is an ‘unmitigated disaster’ Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
Ukraine war: US to support providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine BBC (Kevin W). Note that the US is allowing others to send their F-16s. Also note per Scott Ritter, you can’t retrain pilots have been flying Soviet aircraft to use Western planes, at least if you want the pilot and plane to survive. The pilot’s reflexes are too deeply internalized to rewire. You have to start with new pilots. Plus this seems to be yet more virtue signaling. A bit heavy on Judge Napolitano today but he’s on a roll. From former intelligence officer Tony Schaeffer (at 16:30, who also says later it costs $10 million to train an F-16 pilot):
Giving F-16s to Ukraine is like giving an Audi 2002 TT to the team racing at the Indy 500. There are cars 20 years better and faster. I love the F-16, it’s like a little sports car. But it’s not adequate to have any net success in Ukraine.
G7 agree to ‘starve the Russian war machine’ BBC
In Kharkov, all medical institutions are overflowing with wounded AFU soldiers. Hospitals have no medicine to treat them, no blood donation. Medical staff complain that more Ukrainians are dying in hospital beds than in the trenches! pic.twitter.com/TNTJ1CTGQp
— Geo_monitor (@colonelhomsi) May 17, 2023
Oddly can’t embed this tweet (hat tip guurst):
Ukraine could join ranks of ‘frozen’ conflicts, U.S. officials say Politico (Kevin W)
Pentagon Says Accounting Mistake Frees Up $3 Billion More for Ukraine New York Times (resilc)
LIVE from Ukraine/Russia border – Patrick Lancaster Indy journalist Judge Napolitano, YouTube
Who is delusional? Gilbert Doctorow
Anatomy of a psy-op. Jacob Dreizin. Debunking various Khmelnitsky ammo dump explosion radiation spike rumors. If there was depleted uranium, that is very bad stuff, but it’s the alpha radiation, which does not penetrate skin, but if you inhale or ingest DU particles, it will mess with your organs. So this stuff is hazardous, but the reports on various claimed measurements are bogus. They don’t prove that there was DU in the dump that was vaporized, but that does remain a reasonable surmise.
Syraqistan
Understanding the Iranian Narrative Propaganda in Focus (Micael T)
It’s a bad idea for Biden to broker Saudi-Israeli normalization Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
The map charted by @shaulari shows (in blue and purple dots) the 147 “informal” settlement outposts and satellite neighborhoods that #Israeli minsiter #Smotrich has been empowered to foramalise, and where an additional 500K settlers will be transfered to, bringing their number to… pic.twitter.com/KoyTNfwJh4
— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) May 19, 2023
Imperial Collapse Watch
American Psychosis – Chris Hedges on the US empire of narcissism and psychopathy YouTube (resilc)
Indian diplomacy in overstretch Indian Punchline. Mainly about the implications of Biden being a no-show at the Sydney Quad meeting.
Sanctions Impede Diplomacy (Again) Daniel Larison
Democrats en déshabillé
People Close to Dianne Feinstein Are Joking That She’ll Resign When She’s Dead New Republic (resilc)
Immigration
Desperate Families and Gun-Toting Vigilantes Converge in Arizona After Title 42 Ends Intercept (resilc)
Our No Longer Free Press
Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex: The McCarthyism Reboot Matt Taibbi
Masters of Mediocrity American Conservative. On the New Yorker. Ouch.
Stuffing the Straw Man in Florida Erick-Woods Erickson (furzy)
Gunz
Michigan boy who used slingshot to save sister says he ‘was just lucky’ Associated Press (resilc)
Woke Watch
A Millennial Puzzle: More Diverse but More Segregated Wall Street Journal
AI
AI is great at one thing: Driving next waves of layoffs The Register
Professor Flunks All His Students After ChatGPT Falsely Claims It Wrote Their Papers Rolling Stone (furzy)
Debt Ceiling
White House optimistic about path forward despite ‘serious differences’ on budget talks The Hill
As of middle of the night:
White House, Republican team say no progress in debt ceiling talks https://t.co/O0b21Y7Xej
— CNBC (@CNBC) May 20, 2023
Most say pair debt limit increase with deficit cuts, but few following debate closely: AP-NORC poll Associated Press (resilc)
Why is trickle-down economics still with us? Guardian (furzy)
Americans’ Views of Federal Income Taxes Worsen Gallup. Resilc: “A stupid poll, for stupid people, of a stupid country….USA USA.”
The Bezzle
Australian Stock Exchange Says Software Overhaul Will No Longer Involve Blockchain Reuters
A forensic-accounting expert on how to treat the fraud epidemic Economist (Dr. Kevin)
Elizabeth Holmes: Inside the routine at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas BBC (resilc)
Class Warfare
U.S. Semiconductor Boom Faces a Worker Shortage New York Times (resilc)
Suicides in Massachusetts by Industry and Occupation, 2016–2… Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (resilc)
U.S. prison labor programs violate fundamental human rights, new report finds University of Chicago News (Paul R)
Antidote du jour. Embarrassed that this submission from Christoper W from Down Under languished in my inbox:
I have briefly seen our smaller bats in the night sky. Flying fast and feasting on mosquitos and other insects. Last night, I reentered my office when something chittered and I saw what I thought was a frog on the floor. It didn’t like me picking it up. I took it outside and put it on a plant. Didn’t like that either, high pitched chittering again. I finally picked it up gently and it latched its legs and wings, they felt like sharp hooks, onto my index finger.
So I returned to my office to see if it could recover, although I suspected it had broken a wing I stronked it and took this photo, which sadly is not the best. After about 10 minutes, the chittering recomenced and it spread its wings. Before I could stop it, the bat took off and crashed. I couldn’t find it. 15 minutes later, it landed on my desk. I picked it up and took it outside, where it took off into the night. To my and my partner’s delight.
What a great feeling…
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.